Thursday, July 15, 2010

Hot Pink H

Sorry for the dearth of posts. Decontamination of the basement proceeds apace, but it's not left a lot of time for messing with the computer:

However this has been lingering on my list of things to post:

A lovely Royal H parked outside my office (we get a lot of fun bikes here- not sure exactly why). I really like the idea of using rubber grips on drop bars, but that's because I had a traumatic experience with a roll of bar tape once.

In an interesting aside, the purple and orange and white bike was down the street, and I saw a guy in a suit standing there totally checking it out. He looked up and met my eyes a bit sheepishly, but I smiled, and I was walking Gilbert, so he probably realized I didn't think he was odd. And I'd rather he was obviously ogling bikes than young ladies.

@anonymousMy Dl-1 is a 1971. To be honest I don't know the history of the model very well. My impression is that they didn't change much.

The rod brakes _are_ quite unreliable. It's possible to tune them so they're pretty good in dry conditions but when wet, they're pretty useless (see my post "The hour I first believed" ). My solution is not to ride Minerva in the rain. She's a fair weather friend, and I need to do a little bit of messing so that I can enjoy her in the fair weather we're getting right now. Long term if you want a DL-1 to be your "Daily" you need to either 1) rebuild the rear wheel with a coaster brake hub, as Velouria of Lovely Bicycle recently did, or add a drum brake to the front hub, controlled by the rods of the existing brakes. Or both. I'm not a coaster brake fan, and I have a more practical daily ride, so I' m happy to just live with the rod brakes. The powder coat guy is Scott from Long Beach Custom Fabrication.Somervillain of Boston Retro Wheelmen had a real horror story with him, but I thought for the super cheap price he was fine. If you can allow twice the time he quoted you, and don't ask for anything complicated, the price is ridiculously low. But it's low because he does it essentially for fun, and he has a lot of family stuff going on, doesn't like to answer the phone, and doesn't do show- bike quality. If any of those things are going to be a problem, you should go somewhere else. If you want a super durable finish, in any color known to powder coaters for a third the cost Geekhouse would charge and you aren't in a hurry, he's your man.